A mission not to waste
Finding a way to nip waste in the bud from the start
Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Opinions/Editorial
Recycling is important, but RecycleMania seems slightly off base. With three weeks remaining in RecycleMania, North Quad and Northwoods lead South Quad and Scribner Village, respectively, in the race to increase recycling output.
RecycleMania winners are determined based on volume of recycling per capita in each campus region. Therefore, the winner of RecycleMania is still the one that produces the most garbage. Recycling should be a means, not an end; our goal should not be more recycling, but rather less waste.
As a college, there are simple steps that we can take to make our campus more sustainable by focusing on reducing our consumption, not stopgap measures that do not address the key issue.
Everyone at the college has a Skidmore e-mail address. Why then, are student mailboxes still filled with a steady stream of club and event advertisement? Even if every single slip ends up in the recycling bin, it is a waste of energy and resources if the same ad could have been more easily distributed through e-mail.
Blackboard lets professors distribute readings without having to make dozens of paper copies, but that benefit is negated when the professor asks for students to each bring in printed copies.
One way that the college can combat this issue is to attempt to keep as much reading material on the screen instead of in paper form. There are lots of readily available electronic solutions, ranging from laptops to e-readers like the Kindle, or even smartphones like the iPhones and Blackberries that are so ubiquitous around campus. There are even programs on these devices which allow readers to highlight and take notes while reading. Reading off of a screen is not always all that easy, and it will be hard to replace paper altogether, but if we can all do our best to avoid printing when not absolutely necessary, then we can save massive quantities of paper.
The same goes for us, at the Skidmore News. We work hard to recycle all of our extra papers, but unfortunately the intrinsic nature of a newspaper is that it becomes obsolete as soon as the next issues comes out. With that in mind, we are doing our best to reduce our waste production, in the short term by finding ways to reuse or recycle our papers, and in the long run by eventually going paperless as an online-only publication.
The key to sustainability is finding ways to keep consumption in check. Recycling provides a band-aid, but it does not offer a cure; we should concentrate on reducing our waste from where it begins, rather than praising where it ends up.
RecycleMania winners are determined based on volume of recycling per capita in each campus region. Therefore, the winner of RecycleMania is still the one that produces the most garbage. Recycling should be a means, not an end; our goal should not be more recycling, but rather less waste.
As a college, there are simple steps that we can take to make our campus more sustainable by focusing on reducing our consumption, not stopgap measures that do not address the key issue.
Everyone at the college has a Skidmore e-mail address. Why then, are student mailboxes still filled with a steady stream of club and event advertisement? Even if every single slip ends up in the recycling bin, it is a waste of energy and resources if the same ad could have been more easily distributed through e-mail.
Blackboard lets professors distribute readings without having to make dozens of paper copies, but that benefit is negated when the professor asks for students to each bring in printed copies.
One way that the college can combat this issue is to attempt to keep as much reading material on the screen instead of in paper form. There are lots of readily available electronic solutions, ranging from laptops to e-readers like the Kindle, or even smartphones like the iPhones and Blackberries that are so ubiquitous around campus. There are even programs on these devices which allow readers to highlight and take notes while reading. Reading off of a screen is not always all that easy, and it will be hard to replace paper altogether, but if we can all do our best to avoid printing when not absolutely necessary, then we can save massive quantities of paper.
The same goes for us, at the Skidmore News. We work hard to recycle all of our extra papers, but unfortunately the intrinsic nature of a newspaper is that it becomes obsolete as soon as the next issues comes out. With that in mind, we are doing our best to reduce our waste production, in the short term by finding ways to reuse or recycle our papers, and in the long run by eventually going paperless as an online-only publication.
The key to sustainability is finding ways to keep consumption in check. Recycling provides a band-aid, but it does not offer a cure; we should concentrate on reducing our waste from where it begins, rather than praising where it ends up.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
tfried
posted 3/06/10 @ 7:16 PM EST
results are skewed -- people steal cans from scribner houses every weekend at 6am. has anyone else noticed this?
Post a Comment